Student Mastery

“What’s the most important thing I should teach my children next year?” an audience member asked during a recent presentation I gave in our Madison, CT office. “Work character.” was my two word mysterious answer. I elaborated. 15 years of working with all types of high school students in Connecticut has provided me a distinct […]

I am surprised by the continued success of Motivate Your Son. This is neither false modesty nor subtle bragging. The book was published in 2012. It continues to sell beyond expectation despite zero marketing in the last few years. Reader e-mails tell me the reason: I was correct in my view that we have an […]

Kevin was a freshman at East Lyme High School. An athletic, social, guy, reasonably smart, and, like most boys his age, decidedly more interested in playing video games and hanging out with his friends than making the most of his academic potential. I met with Kevin formally as part of our Student Mastery program. I […]

“You’ll be happy and surprised to hear that Alyssa thanked me for setting up all that math tutoring!” Mr. Rhodes, Alyssa’s father, said as she was just accepted to a top liberal arts college. Alyssa had first started working with us in 8th grade when she was at John Winthrop middle school in Deep River, […]

“How do you and your team do it?” asked Mrs. Keil, the parent of four rambunctious teens from Madison, CT that have worked with The Learning Consultants through the years. “We are not their parents.” I responded. She laughed, tried to compliment us again and then agreed that we have a competitive advantage. “Whatever you […]

“I was really irritated with you last night when I saw the unchecked box.” Drew said. A sophomore in the Clinton, Connecticut school system, Drew often “forgot” to do one of his homework assignments. He was kidding about the checklist system that I had him put in place to ensure that each of his assignments […]

“Everyone smokes pot.” I’ve heard this from dozens of students throughout Connecticut. Having grown up in the era where the athletes drank and the “burn outs” smoked, I was taken aback when I first heard from one of my student-athlete clients that all of his buddies on the lacrosse team smoked. This was circa 2005. […]

“We were totally caught off guard by the essay!” said several students in my fall SAT class in Madison. These students had taken the ACT but only prepared by buying the ACT book, which only had versions of the old essay prompt. The ACT has been a highly stable test. The SAT has been overhauled […]

I’ve been working with students for 15 years. At this point, The Learning Consultants has likely had about 10,000 students use our services. Of those 10,000, the most common element separating the successful is not IQ but rather motivation. When I work with a motivated student, I know that “things will turn out alright.” This […]

During our college consultations, the subject of the gap year has become an increasingly common topic. Conceptually, the gap year seems attractive: the high school graduate takes a year to develop himself further before heading to college. Greater maturity, independence, and experience are almost always developed. Freshmen who took a gap year are in a […]